Conventional Petroleum oil is mined by drilling wells into the ground. Tar sands are mined by conventional mining techniques using trucks and shovels.
Tar sands are found all over the world, with the largest deposits being in Venezuela and Alberta, Canada. Tar sands represent 66% of the worlds supply of petroleum, with 34% (1.8 trillion barrels) in the Venezuelan Orinoco tar sands deposit, 32% (1.7 trillion barrels) in Canada's Athabasca Tar Sands deposit and the remaining 33% (1.75 trillion barrels) as conventional oil, much of it in Saudi Arabia and other Middle-Eastern countries.
Bitumen is commonly removed from the tar sands by 'cracking' the bitumen from the clay and sand using hot water and agitation and skimming the oil from the top; the 'hot water' process. Bitumen is much thicker than traditional crude oil, so it must be either mixed with lighter petrolium (either liquid or gas) or chemically split before it can be transported by pipeline.
The Canadian tar sands produce 750,000 barrels (150 million litres) of crude oil per day using the hot water process.
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